Martin O’Neill: We shouldn’t fear being underdogs

By Liam Mackey, Paris

Martin O’Neill says the fact that, following a tough group draw in Paris today, Ireland will go into the European Championship finals next year as underdogs, “should not frighten us.”

The Ireland manager admitted that his first reaction to drawing Belgium, Italy and Sweden in Group E was one of shock.

“It’s a difficult draw,” he said after digesting the news. “I’ve just said jokingly there that I was looking forward to the draw an hour and a half ago – I’m maybe not so sure now.

“But listen, I’ll tell you what: I think the fans will rise the occasion and I think that rather than them being disappointed I think they will feel enthused by the difficulty of the games - and knowing that we’re going into all matches as underdogs I don’t think should frighten us. We will go there with confidence and try to compete.

“Naturally, you’re talking about Italy, who are effectively a pot one team; Belgium are considered the best side in the world in terms of their ranking; and Sweden, who know about these competitions and have so much experience and just seem to know how to qualify. So it’s a difficult one for us but we look forward to it.

“I don’t know why Italy are in pot two. They are a strong side with great history. Belgium are also an absolutely top-class sides. And Sweden have (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic as well as a steady side.

“But I will be giving nothing up. We have a real chance. The first match is very important and, if the World Cup in Brazil is anything to go by, then teams try to throw off the shackles in the opening match and go for it. I think our fans will look forward to it. They know that when it is difficult we are perhaps at our best.”

And even as he came to terms with the challenge that awaits in June, Martin O’Neill was able to spare a thought for his namesake Michael after the Northern Ireland manager saw his team end up in an unforgiving group with world champions Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

“I don’t know how Michael feels about his draw - he’s probably being carried off on a stretcher himself as well,” the Republic manager quipped.

O’Neill, whose team came up against both the Germans and the Poles in Euro qualifying, said he’d be happy to share notes with his Northern Ireland counterpart.

“Any information he wants he can have,” he said. “But Michael is pretty studious - any information I might give him could put him off! They have a difficult group also and we’ll have to console each other”

But O’Neill concluded on an upbeat note: “Knowing that the games are difficult - that’s sometimes when we’re at our best. We’ve beaten Germany and we’ll take some confidence from that. There’s a long way to go. I’ll fret now for the next couple of weeks and then I’ll look forward to it with enthusiasm after that.”

Italy manager Antonio Conte - to judge by his UEFA translator - appeared to be under the impression his team had drawn Michael O’Neill’s side rather than Martin O’Neill’s.

“It's an interesting draw,” he said. “Belgium are a great team with a lot of young, attacking players and Sweden and Northern Ireland (sic) are also good teams. Belgium have strong players like (Kevin) De Bruyne. They're a very young team but a good team and will be the favourites in the group.

“Sweden have Zlatan (Ibrahomovic) who is a strong player. Northern Ireland (sic) have a will to win and they bring that into their games.”

Belgium boss Marc Wilmots said he felt his side’s toughest test would come in their opening game and went on to characterise Ireland as a long ball team.

“It’s a fairly tough group. The most annoying thing is that we’re playing Italy in the first game. It’s always difficult to recover if you lose your first game. But the Italians will not be happy to have been drawn against us either.

“We will not have time to grow into the tournament. We will have to be at our best from the first match. Italy and Sweden we know from having played them recently. With Ireland, there are a lot of a long balls - it’s a direct game.”

“We are the favourites, along with Italy, to advance to the next round. We want to go as far as possible. The semi-finals would be great and then we will see where we can go from there. I have players who have ambition.”

For his part, the reaction of Sweden boss Erik Hamren to the draw was short and sharp

“I said before the draw that the group could be either really tough, tough or ok – and this is tough.”

Ireland will return to the Stade de France for the first time since the ‘Hand Of Gaul’ World Cup play off game in 2009 when they open their 2016 European finals account with a game against Sweden on Monday June 13, followed by matches against Belgium in Bordeaux on Saturday June 18 and Italy in Lille on Wednesday June 22.